According to documents obtained by ‘The Washington Post,’ the University of Virginia has a system that may prioritize wealthier applicants.

You may have heard rumors here and there that, when it comes to college admissions, students whose families donate generously to the school get favorable treatment. Well, turns out that may not just be a rumor: According to documents shared with by The Washington Post, the University of Virginia (UVA) has a history of flagging and prioritizing VIP applicants.

The Post reported that the papers show more than a decade of communications between the UVA admissions office and the advancement office, which oversees fundraising, related the admission status of certain applications. It seems the university maintained a “watch list” of such applicants and made specific notes about their status and fundraising connections. One initially denied student’s file contained several notes, including a handwritten “$500k,” a typed note stating, “must be on WL [wait list],” another handwritten, “if at all possible A [accepted],” and a mention that the applicant’s mother was “BFF” and “sorority sister” with another person whose name was removed from the documents. The student’s final application status wasn’t shown.

Another denied applicant’s file included a note that the student had met with Sean Jenkins, the senior assistant to UVA’s president Teresa Sullivan, and Jeff Boyd, the then-senior associate director in the development office. The file also included a note of “$140K” and “Could push. Jeff Boyd says at least W.L. D [denial] to A? WL?”

For its part, UVA denies that the advancement office influences admissions. “The Office of Advancement is occasionally contacted by alumni, friends and supporters recommending students who have an interest in attending UVA,” spokesman Anthony de Bruyn wrote to the Post. “Such a practice is not unique to U-Va. and can be found at similar institutions.” But, de Bruyn maintained that the admissions office works alone to review applications.

But others question whether that’s really the case, given the noted documents, as well as the fact that UVA has a strong history of fundraising — and a low percentage of low-income students. According to the Post, the school is one of the richest in the country, with an endowment of more than $5.8 billion, but only 13% of the students from the 2014-2015 school year qualified for need-based Pell Grants.

Harold O. Levy, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which gives scholarships to low-income students, pointed out the fact that UVA, (like other highly selective schools), mostly admits students from the top income quartile, while students from the lowest income-quartile are few and far between. “Until now colleges have insisted that it was accidental and happenstance,” that so many wealthy students get admitted, he told the Post, “but this puts a new light on it.”

And, while UVA denies it, Joe Boeckenstedt, associate vice president for enrollment at DePaul University, told the Post that donations are absolutely tied to admissions at many schools. “I think it’s pretty obvious to a lot of people that the ability to donate large sums of money or a history of doing so has a huge effect on admissions at the top institutions in the country,” he told the Post. “This happens frequently.”